Thread by @shailjapatel

An African woman is becoming the head of the World Trade Organization. The WTO exists to "drive down women’s wages, displace women from their land, privatise public goods to enrich multinational corporations."

apwld.org/press-release-…

"We are sick of gender equality being used as a cynical ploy to justify neoliberalism.”

Please think about this before you hail the appointment of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as head of the WTO.

"The removal of tariffs and import limits alone have been detrimental to women’s rights. Tariff reductions reduce government revenue essential for public investments in health, education, energy, water, transport and social protection."

world-psi.org/en/womens-righ…

"Even if the benefits the WTO bestows on the richest 1% of the world’s population were evenly split between men and women, the majority of the world’s women would not benefit."

If you support #FarmersProtest, you need to understand that the WTO is the enemy.

downtoearth.org.in/news/agricultu…

The WTO, the World Bank, and the IMF are a triumvirate. Their global regime has done terrible harm to African women.

fpif.org/the_imf_violat…

"dozens of developing and least-developed countries said the World Trade Organization's s intellectual property rules were acting as a barrier to urgent scale-up of production of vaccines and other much needed medical equipment in poor countries."

dw.com/en/rich-countr…

Today's a good day to read about the 2012 general strike in Nigeria in response to Okonjo-Iweala slashing the state fuel subsidy.

"Would it be acceptable to citizens of affluent countries that the price of gasoline doubles overnight without any warning?"

csmonitor.com/World/Africa/A…

"The Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has repeatedly stated that removing the fuel subsidy would only hurt the affluent car-owning population, forgetting how central the price of fuel is to almost every basic aspect of life here."

The liberal perspective.

theafricareport.com/63928/nigerias…